Built To Roam: A few short hikes from Utah.

So far I've listed all the major hikes from the Utah trip and I'm left with a few smaller side trips we took during the course of our stay there. The majority of these hikes were small detours either off the side of the road or within the National Parks we visited. Utah and Arizona had so much to offer that while any one of these hikes would warrant a full page review had they been around here, I'm condensing them into one update as to get some closure on the trip and be able to showcase the last of what we saw there.
"Horseshoe Bend" read a small sign on the side of the road just outside Page, Utah. Looking back the sign was far more plain than it should have been for the short hike to a view that it advertized. I've come to realize by going on this trip that there are so many outstanding natural features out West that something like Horseshoe Bend, which would almost certainly be a National Park in it's self had it been located elsewhere in the county, was now nothing more than a small trail-head parking lot on the side of the road. The 1.5 mile round trip was well worth it and the view at the end, a large horseshoe shaped bend in the Colorado River hundreds of feet below, was a 10 out of 10.
We also took a short hike to the Emerald Pools in Zion National Park. This included walking under a waterfall, which is more active during certain times of the year, and concluded at the upper emerald pool which was full of frogs who's croak could be herd miles away. Being a Biologist, my expertise, of course told me it was Big Horned Sheep, so when we found out it was frogs I looked pretty knowledgeable.
We also went to the Grand Canyon and watched the sunset at Yavapai Point, hiked to the view point for the Court of the Patriarchs in Zion, wandered out into the middle of the desert near our campsite in Canyonlands (I did whine a lot about this one so credit goes to Nicole for slapping the sissy out of me), and hiked into the country behind our campsite in Zion National Park. This whole trip was amazing, from start to finish everything that could have gone right went right, we saw all that we set out to see and then some, everything just sort of fell into place and made this trip one that none of us will ever forget and always hope to top. I want to visit quite a long list of places in this would during my life, but I wouldn't hesitate for one second if given the chance to travel once again to the Wild West and get wide eyed in its splendor like it was the first time I had ever seen it. There was a reason we Americans Manifest Destined, and since Dysentery and Cholera are at an all time low, now's a pretty damn good time to take that trip out West, and I promise if you do you'll never have to cork a wagon and it will be a trip you'll never forget.

On a side note this Saturday, July 21 is the year anniversary of this Blog and to commemorate it I am hiking Mt. Washington for the "Seek the Peak" charity event to sponsor the Mount Washington Observatory. If you are interested in sponsoring me you can do so here. Thanks again for following along!

Mileage: 6 Miles